2004: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Ukrainians and Ukraine in headlines in Canada

While Ukrainian Canadian radio faced the axe and a Ukrainian Canadian singer just barely missed becoming the "Canadian Idol," a long-lost Victoria Cross awarded to a Ukrainian Canadian hero was found and long-awaited Canadian government recognition of the internment of thousands of Ukrainian Canadians during the first world war finally seemed possible in a year that concluded with most Canadian eyes - regardless of their ethnicity - turned toward Ukraine and its presidential election.

In early January, a highly placed source at Montreal-based Radio Canada International (RCI) told The Weekly that the Ukrainian-language service at Canada's publicly funded international radio network faced having its air time reduced by half to 15 minutes or cut completely. Among the RCI's nine language sections (including English and French), the Ukrainian section had been broadcasting twice daily and transmitting to Ukraine via short-wave and on Ukraine's National Radio Company - reaching a potential audience of 2 million listeners.

Having featured interviews last year with future Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko - who then found it difficult to get onto Ukrainian airwaves at home - groups like the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) lobbied to have RCI's Ukrainian service remain intact. While the section's broadcasting schedule was uncertain, its staff had already shrunk in size from five employees and a daily 60-minute time slot at its height over the past decade to only two full-time announcer-producers.

In the spring, Lina Gavrilova, head of RCI's Ukrainian section, told The Weekly that Ukrainian programming would drop from 30 minutes a day, seven days a week, to a total of one hour per week. But the change would only come into effect after October 31-the day Ukrainians first headed to the polls to elect their next president - thanks to an 11th-hour intervention by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham.

As part of the overhaul, the section faced further staff cuts when two casual employees were to be eliminated. It was also unclear whether the Ukrainian program, which also broadcasts over the Internet and via satellite, would continue to be heard over short-wave - an issue that concerned UCC executive director Ostap Skrypnyk. "There is a need for Ukrainians to have access to unbiased information and learn about the Ukrainian community in Canada," he told The Weekly in March. "If RCI relies on buying space on Ukrainian stations, there's a risk that bad people running them can cut off broadcasts of the Ukrainian program."

But while RCI was watching its pennies, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA) was out to raise some coin through sales of "Silver Threads," the first children's book by Ontario-based Ukrainian Canadian author Marsha Skrypuch. Published in 1996, "Silver Threads" is considered the first children's story that deals with the internment of Ukrainian Canadians during World War I. Each dollar raised through the sale of the revised edition would go toward the cost of installing a plaque at the site of an internment camp or for UCCLA educational efforts.

At its seventh annual conclave, held in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on October 28-31, the UCCLA welcomed a delegation from the newly established Ukrainian American Civil Liberties Association and committed itself to set up a memorial plaque at the site of an internment camp that operated from June 1915 to October 1918 in Fernie, British Columbia - the site of the next conclave scheduled for the fall of 2005.

In yet another commemoration of the internment of Ukrainian Canadians, the painting "Where Could We Escape To?" by Peter Shostak was donated on October 2 to the Royal Military College (Canada's West Point), in Kingston, Ontario, by Motria Koropecky, widow of RMC alumnus Yaromyr Borys Koropecky, and the Class of '64. The painting portrays internees under guard, marching into a dark forest.

Meanwhile, the UCCLA got a boost for its long-running campaign for internment-related redress when the newly formed Conservative Party of Canada announced its support for the Ukrainian Canadian claim and a similar one by the Chinese Canadian community over discrimination its members faced, such as the imposition of an immigration head tax during the early part of the last century. Both groups - along with the federal opposition New Democratic and Bloc Québécois parties - endorsed two private member's bills sponsored by Chinese-born Manitoba Conservative member of Parliament Inky Mark that would provide restitution to the Ukrainian and Chinese Canadian communities.

The UCCLA also announced that a survey it had conducted among members of Parliament and candidates campaigning in the current Canadian federal election indicate overwhelming support for Bill C 331, the Ukrainian Canadian Restitution Act, and Bill C 333, the Chinese Canadian Recognition and Restitution Act. Commenting, Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, UCCLA's director of research, said, "we have already secured the endorsement of a majority of MPs and candidates for office. Officially, the Conservative Party of Canada, the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party have all confirmed their support. Many members of the Green Party have done likewise. We have even had some favorable votes from Liberal Party MPs and candidates."

In December, the Ukrainian Canadian Restitution Act (Bill C-331) was inching closer to becoming law after it passed second reading in the House of Commons.

For his commitment to their respective causes, Mr. Mark was honored by the UCCLA and the National Congress of Chinese Canadians at a June 14 banquet in Toronto where he was presented with a plaque inscribed with the words, "For Justice."

There was more good news for the UCCLA family when Dr. Luciuk, an ardent promoter of Ukrainian Canadian war hero Filip Konowal's legacy, learned that the late Konowal's long-lost Victoria Cross (VC) had been found and was scheduled to be sold at an auction in Ontario on May 30. Acquired by the Ottawa-based Canadian War Museum in 1969, the British Empire's highest bravery medal that was presented to Konowal by King George V - and made Konowal the only Ukrainian Canadian to ever receive it - went missing around 1973. But once discovered at a London, Ontario, auction house, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police seized it and began an investigation to determine its authenticity before returning it to the museum.

Meanwhile, the UCCLA was planning to erect a trilingual plaque in Lens, France, the site near Vimy Ridge where as a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Force's 47th Infantry Battalion Konowal single-handedly took out three German positions and killed at least 16 German soldiers over a two-day period in August 1917.

Konowal's name was to be included with the other 93 Canadians who received a VC as part of a commemorative stamp issued by Canada Post Corp. in October.

Over the summer, the Canadian War Museum announced that a "recovery ceremony" would be held on August 23 - to coincide with the 13th anniversary of Ukrainian independence - to welcome home Konowal's medal. "It's the actual medal - I guarantee you that," Joe Geurts, the museum's director and chief executive officer, told The Weekly. Ninety people, including Konowal's 65-year-old granddaughter Claudette Wright and Ukrainian Ambassador Mykola Maimeskul, attended the event.

One person not present, however, was Joseph Shkwarek, an 83-year-old Ottawa resident and World War II Ukrainian Canadian veteran, who bought the decoration for $2,500 (Canadian) from Konowal's widow in 1969 and who presented it to the museum for a $1,000 finder's fee. Alleging that the VC's disappearance was the result of an "inside job" involving an employee and an ex-RCMP officer, Mr. Shkwarek was nonetheless pleased the medal had returned to the Canadian War Museum's national collection and that Konowal's story would be told in its First World War gallery at the museum's new location scheduled to open in May, 2005.

In May issues involving Ukraine and Canada-Ukraine cooperation were the focus of a roundtable discussion held in Ottawa. Chaired by David Preston, director general of Foreign Affairs' Central, East and South Europe Bureau, the one-day symposium examined such topics as Ukraine's pre-election "domestic landscape" and whether the country's geopolitical orientation was leaning toward the East or West.

Election talk turned toward Canada on June 28 when Canadians headed for the polls. At least four Ukrainian Canadians were victorious, including two Liberals in Ontario (newcomer Borys Wrzesnewskyj and Walt Lastewka, who was appointed parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services); New Democrat Judy Wasylycia-Leis in Winnipeg; and Conservative Mark Warawa of British Columbia. Among those unsuccessful was Jurij Klufas, executive producer of the Kontakt Ukrainian Television Network who ran as a Conservative candidate in a Toronto riding.

Meanwhile, two other Ukrainian Canadians were trying to win over the public in another and perhaps, even more popular competition.

Theresa Sokyrka of Saskatoon and Edmonton's Kyla Sandulak were among 32 contestants vying to impress judges and score votes in CTV's "Canadian Idol." Of the two young women, both 23 years of age, Ms. Sokyrka emerged over the summer as one of two finalists from an initial field of 9,000 competitors and became an instant celebrity, returning to the Ukrainian-English elementary school she attended and stopping by Saskatoon's Ukraine Day in the Park on August 28 where she was greeted by an estimated crowd of 3,000.

But, despite a strong show of support from some 5,000 Saskatoon fans that gathered at an arena in the city to watch the final two-hour show from Toronto on September 16, Ms. Sokyrka finished second to Alberta's Kalan Porter, who was crowned "Canadian Idol."

The excitement followed an August 28 performance at Toronto's eighth annual Bloor Street Village Festival by Ukraine's pop sensation Ruslana, who won the 2004 EuroVision Song Contest and who would go on to take home a World Music Award as the "World's Best-Selling Ukrainian Artist" - a first for that category - at a ceremony held in Las Vegas.

In early October, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress held its 21st triennial meeting in Winnipeg at which several resolutions were passed, including one that called on RCI to reconsider its cuts to the Ukrainian section and another that called on the Canadian government to "immediately resume settlement negotiations" with the Ukrainian Canadian community over the internment-redress issue.

Among the other resolutions:

• an end to all denaturalization and deportation proceedings against Canadians who received their citizenship over half-century ago, and a call for Ottawa to use Canadian courts to hear charges against Canadians accused of war crimes or crimes against humanity during World War II and to amend the Citizenship Act to prevent "arbitrary" deportation or denaturalization before an individual's guilt has been "fairly established by Canadian standards of justice;"
  
  
• the creation and administration of a national database to assist new Ukrainian immigrants to Canada;
  
  
• a request to the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko to sponsor a planning meeting for the future of Ukrainian and Ukrainian Canadian studies, including distance and continuing education as well as seed funding for new courses;
  
  
• work on developing "awareness of issues of concern to the Ukrainian community" with Canadian legislators at all government levels who are of Ukrainian origin or have other ties to the community; and
  
  
• a recommendation to the Canada Ukraine Foundation that the trafficking of persons, especially women and children, be identified as an issue for project funding in Ukraine and to seek ways to partner with existing anti-trafficking organizations.

The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies based at the University of Alberta was behind a roundtable discussion dedicated to issues of concern in Ukraine and Canada-Ukraine cooperation that was held on May 12 at Foreign Affairs Canada offices in Ottawa, the all-day roundtable, held in the absence of media, featured frank discussions on burning issues of the day: "Ukraine's Domestic Landscape before the Election," "Democratic Development - Success and Challenges," "The Geopolitical Orientation of Ukraine - East- or West-Leaning?" and "Canadian Support of Ukrainian Democracy."

Two graduate students from Ukraine - Olena Nikolayenko, a Ph.D. student in comparative politics from Donetsk Oblast and Oksana Tatsyak, a Ph.D. student in Ukrainian literature from Lviv - organized the first graduate student seminar in North American on March 12-13 at the Center for Russian and East European Studies (CREES) at the University of Toronto. The goal was to bring together graduate students working in Ukrainian-related fields so that they could find out about each other and showcase their research to a wider public. The students found support for their idea at CREES and sponsors in the Petro Jacyk Program for the Study of Ukraine and the recently created Wolodymyr George Danyliw Foundation. The Graduate Student Symposium, titled "Exploring Ukrainian Identity: Gender, Ethnicity and Statehood," comprised 12 presentations from graduate students at various universities. The symposium consisted of four panels, each featuring three students, a faculty chair and a faculty discussant.

Ukraine - and its Orange Revolution - was also on the mind of Toronto MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj, who in September presented a $250,000 (about $206,000 U.S.) check to the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) in Edmonton on behalf of his family's charitable foundation, Dopomoha Ukraini (Aid to Ukraine) to fund the Ukraine Transparency and Election Monitoring Project (UTEMP).

Under the management of the CIUS - and on the eve of Ukraine's presidential election - the project sent 26 Canadian experts to Ukraine to design and deliver non-partisan seminars on election laws, policies and procedures for local election officials and scrutineers. UTEMP also trained over 1,000 Ukrainian observers and organized observer missions of Canadian MPs, including Mr. Wrzesnewskyj, who made his sixth visit to Ukraine since August when he was among 500 Canadians who served as official monitors for the second presidential run-off vote on December 26.

Former Canadian Prime Minister John Turner headed up the Canadian mission, described in a statement released by current Prime Minister Paul Martin's office as the country's "largest-ever contingent of independent electoral observers." The contingent, the first international mission organized by the Canadian International Development Agency's Canada Corps, consisted of 112 observers assigned to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and 388 Canadian observers who reported to Mr. Turner and were attached to Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission.

CANADEM, the Ottawa-based international peace and security organization that put out the call for election observers, reported that more than 3,000 Canadians expressed interest in volunteering their time in Ukraine over the Christmas weekend. The Winnipeg-based UCC, meanwhile, selected over 300 out of 1,100 applicants to serve as accredited election observers along with 200 Ukrainian Canadians living in Ukraine.

Canada's Parliament had kept a close eye on Ukraine's election, with MPs twice unanimously supporting motions introduced in the Commons by Mr. Wrzesnewskyj. One called on the Ukrainian government "to ensure a democratic, transparent and fair election process" on October 31 and during a likely second round on November 21 - a warning also issued by Canadian Ambassador Andrew Robinson, much to the consternation of Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Wrzesnewskyj's other motion on November 25 followed an emergency debate in the Commons. The measure cited "a concerted, systemic and massive fraud" in that run-off vote.

Even before Round 2 of Ukraine's presidential election slated for November 21, a trio of Liberal parliamentarians (MPs Wrzesnewskyj and David Kilgour and Ontario Sen. David Smith) told journalists at a press conference in Kyiv that Russian President Vladimir Putin had meddled in the October 31 election by campaigning on behalf of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

Meanwhile, before the November 21 vote, over 150 people attended a rally at Ontario's legislature, Queen's Park, organized by the University of Toronto's Ukrainian Students Club to call for a free and fair second round.

In Winnipeg, Ukrainian citizens and their supporters gathered near the Taras Shevchenko monument on the grounds of the Manitoba legislature on November 21 to protest the Ukrainian government's decision to only hold two polling stations (one each in Toronto and Ottawa) for Ukrainians living in Canada. To express their displeasure, the group held their own symbolic vote and, perhaps not surprisingly, 111 of the 113 ballots cast went to Mr. Yushchenko.

The support for Ukrainians protesting the falsified presidential election results also spread to Saskatchewan's two largest cities.

Members of Regina's Ukrainian Canadian community gathered at the Saskatchewan Legislative Building on November 23, while upwards of 100 people attended a rally at Saskatoon City Hall on November 24. Each gathering protested the flawed presidential election in Ukraine and supported the people of Ukraine and their democratically elected president, Viktor Yushchenko. In Regina, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Myron Kowalsky met with the group and invited all for discussion and coffee. Eugene Krenosky, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Saskatchewan Pronvial Council (UCC-SPC), joined the group to present the official position from the council.

Up to 300 people gathered on November 24 in Square Victoria, located in Montreal's financial district, to show solidarity with the 1 million demonstrators in Ukraine.

Montreal demonstrators supported Mr. Yushchenko by shouting "Yushchenko - President" and many other slogans.

The Montreal demonstrators kept an open telephone line with Mr. Yushchenko's office in Kyiv, expressing their support during the hourlong rally.

On November 30, all three political parties in the Manitoba legislature passed a resolution calling for the provincial government to work with its federal counterpart to ensure Ukraine's democratic process was upheld during the December 26 vote.

Meanwhile, in Winnipeg, the UCC's board of directors held an emergency session on November 27 to call on Ottawa to recognize Mr. Yushchenko as Ukraine's president; demand that Moscow stop interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs; and to call on Ukrainian authorities "not to use force against their own people" as Ukrainians continued to protest the results from the two previous presidential votes.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 16, 2005, No. 2, Vol. LXXIII

| Home Page |